The Surprise Party
by SpencerRemyLvr
Summary: So I asked for a prompt and was given "What would happen if Parker one day comes to a morning briefing dragging an unconscious clown by his leg?" Set during Season 2 while Tara's there.


_Okay, so I had fun writing this but I'm warning you that I'm not that great at writing Leverage IMO, so they might seem a little OOC and this might not really be that great. But I laughed at it and I figured I might as well post it. It'll save me from friends who break into my accounts and post stuff for me anyways lol_

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><p>Seeing strange things had sort of become par for the course around the Leverage offices. With Parker around, you just kind of had to get used to the occasional odd thing. Like when she'd brought back all those piñatas after a job and had emptied them of all their candy and then hung them around the offices. Or the time that she'd decided to decorate for Halloween by gluing googly-eyes on pretty much everything. Alec had laughed his ass off at that one after watching Eliot attack a defenseless cupboard when the ghost with big googly-eyes had popped out of it while he'd been trying to get a cup. Parker had been devastated her ghost was torn and demanded Alec help her fix it, but it had been so worth it to see Eliot attack a fake ghost and a cupboard door with a knife. Man had damn good reflexes. He made a mental note of that so that they could make sure to keep a safe distance for any future jokes. No need to get caught in the crossfire.<p>

But there was Parker's usual strangeness and then there was—this. Alec had no idea what words there were for this.

He was busy getting things together for their morning briefing, with Nate still downstairs with Tara and the client, and Eliot in the kitchen making some coffee, when the front door opened and Alec heard his name being called. "Hardison!" Parker called out. "Come give me a hand."

"Sure thing, mama." A few clicks to save what he was doing and he turned around, ready to see what it was she needed. He got two steps forward before his brain finally registered what he was seeing and he stopped dead in his tracks. He knew his eyes went wide in his face, knew that he was just standing there gaping, but… "Parker, is that a—_clown_?"

Parker looked back at the body that she was dragging in by its ankle and then she looked back at Alex like he was stupid. "Duh." She shook her head at him in an almost disappointed way, her expression clearly saying that she couldn't believe he'd asked that question. "Now, will you come help me get him in here? He's kind of heavy."

There were about seven different things that Alec could think of to say right then and about twelve different questions. But as he jogged over to her, what came out was "Please tell me he aint dead."

"Why are you dragging around a dead clown?" Eliot demanded from the kitchen.

That was his question? That was the one thing that he had to ask? Alec snorted and shook his head. He was surrounded by insane people. Then again, he wasn't exactly any better. He was over here helping her haul this potentially dead clown, wasn't he? As Alec caught the clown's other ankle, Parker rolled her eyes at the both of them. "He's not _dead_. He's just…resting." She tugged him forward, not even noticing as his head thumped on the ground and his curly colorful wig came off.

Eliot shook his head and pressed the button on the coffee maker to set the coffee to brewing. Then he made his way over to them, going to the clown's head and bending down to get his arms and help lift him. He looked surprisingly undisturbed by the whole thing. He gave a low grunt and glared at her. "Fine, then. Why are you dragging around a _resting_ clown?"

She directed them over to the couch where the three of them dumped the clown down. Parker looked down at him when they had him on there and she gave a sharp, satisfied nod. Then she went back and grabbed his wig off the floor. "We need him for the party." She told the boys while she worked to get the wig back on the unconscious clown's head. "I heard Tara talking and it's her birthday today, so I thought we could throw her a party to make her feel more welcome. So I got the clown and I thought Eliot could make a cake and Hardison, you could put on some fun music and we could sing and do all that birthday stuff people do. I even got her a present." From her pocket she pulled out a brightly wrapped present, holding it up to them with a grin that was full of a childlike sort of pride.

What on earth could they say to that? She looked so pleased, so proud. Alec couldn't resist the happiness on her face. Nor could he just stand there as the happiness slowly started to fade away and worry set in when the silence stretched on a little too long. In her own mixed up sort of way, this really was a gesture of kindness and friendship on Parker's part, and he couldn't quite bring himself to ruin it. Anything to make the girl happy. That was how he found himself saying "I'm sure I can find some birthday music. I've got some paper, if you wanna make her a card to go with it."

The way that Parker's whole face lit up made it all worth it. He'd do just about anything to put that look in her eyes. She shot forward and gave him one of her brief, hard hugs, always such a surprise even when you saw it coming, and Alec found himself grinning when she let go and shot off to grab supplies from the back room where she knew he kept things like printer paper and other office supplies.

Alec turned back to find that Eliot was watching her go too with that same expression of fond annoyance that she seemed to always trigger. He looked back at Alec and rolled his eyes when he found the man grinning. Lifting a finger, he pointed it in Alec's direction. "You keep an eye on the clown and make sure she doesn't go bringing in any other random party-goers. An call Nate to let him know to hold off for an hour or so if he can."

"Where are you going?" Alec demanded. There was no way in hell Eliot was leaving him alone in here with a clown that Parker had, he was afraid, _tasered_ to get him here.

A low growl came from Eliot while he stomped into the kitchen. "I've got to make a damn cake!"

Yeah, strange things had sort of become par for the course around the Leverage offices, but things were definitely never dull.


End file.
